(Note to Mr. Garris: Mick, I've played with the structure
of the story. Please let me know if this works for you.)
(Note to Mr. Henry: Flint, due to the way the pagination
has come together on this issue, we're looking at four sets of two pages.
Since there's a lot of imagery I'd like to use -- not to mention I want to keep as much of Mick's
text as possible -- let's utilize the two page spreads to the max, almost
treating each one as one page. Hopefully, this will give us room.
Additionally, I'll go light on specific set dressings and lighting, etc. I'll
play despot "director" with you later...)
Panel 1 INT. DELIVERY ROOM MOVIE SET. PANAVISION WIDE. We're on a movie set. Center stage is the delivery table, and on it, legs positioned in stirrups, ready for her big scene, is CANDY (visual ref: a B- movie "actress" with bargain basement DEMI MOORE looks [silicone boobs a must] someone like Melissa Moore). Standing over her, between her parted thighs, is our DIRECTOR/PROTAGONIST (let's call him ADAM.) VARIOUS CREW MEMBERS -- Boom Operator, Sound Recordist, etc -- stand around awaiting the BIG Moment as ADAM prepares for the take, the CINEMATOGRAPHER holding up a viewfinder to check the shot.
CAPT (1): The Mexican woman's freak baby might have been the worst thing ever to happen to her, but it could have been the best thing in the world to ever happen to me...
CAPT (2): Everybody's asking to see the puppet, who made the baby...
CAPT (3): I just smile, playing the wise man with the secret...
Panel 2 SAME, BUT IN CLOSER -- MEDIUM WIDE. Adam has lifted a basket containing the covered baby, about to go for his moment of truth. The crew have cleared the set so it's just him standing before Candy.
CAPT (4): I keep it hidden from view as I move onto my mark.
CAPT (5): I'm doing my cameo as the doctor who delivers the thing, so I'm in total control.
Panel 3 CLOSE-UP: ADAM His eyes twinkling mischievously above his surgical mask.
CAPT (6): I even gave myself a crucial close-up.
Panel 4 CLOSE-UP: CANDY Giving Adam a knowing wink with one eye, ready to do the scene.
CAPT (7): Candy's my superstar discovery. My silicone playmate. But she's just another rest stop on the Hollywood Highway.
Panel 5 MEDIUM SHOT. Adam and Candy start to role play: she puffing and panting as if about to drop, he ernest (Flint: this should be discreet!) as his hands reach beneath her hospital gown.
CAPT (7): QUIET! Rolling!
CAPT (8): Slate it!...ACTION!
Panel 6 SEMI-LOW ANGLE MEDIUM SHOT. Adam holds up the baby (ASTA), a moment of triumph.
CAPT (9): It worked like a dream.
CAPT (10): Asta played it beautifully, letting loose with that long, weak tremolo, spooking everyone on the stage into bug-eyed silence.
CAPT (11): I kept it rolling, and when I finally yelled "Cut!", cast and crew alike burst into applause.
Panel 7 SAME. DIFFERENT ANGLE. WIDER. Adam's starting to bow, holding up Asta for the crew, BG, to see, as the applause continues.
CAPT (12): I bowed, and Hollywood welcomed me home.
Panel 8 WIDE ANGLE. Asta lies on the delivery table FG, as the Cinematographer and his assistants light the next shot. BG, Adam is having a heated argument with a STERN-FACED WOMAN (the Welfare Bitch.)
CAPT (13): Welfare turned up on set screaming child abuse, before we could even get Asta's close-up.
CAPT (14): There's some law about not being able to have an infant under stage lights for more than thirty seconds.
Panel 9 TWO SHOT: Adam and the Welfare Bitch arguing heatedly.
CAPT (15): I tell them there's no child here, that it's special effects. Or an animal.
CAPT (16): They want to know where the wrangler is.
CAPT (17): Right. FREAK wrangler.
Panel 10 TWO SHOT: Adam and the 2ND AD. The Ad's broken in on the conversation, whispering to Adam, and what he's hearing has provoked a look of terror.
CAPT (18): What the 2nd AD told me made the whole argument moot.
Panel 11 ON THE DELIVERY TABLE -- MEDIUM WIDE. Asta -- or what WAS Asta -- lies in a deflated, gooey, rubbery heap on the table, FG. Adam, mid-panel, has face now racked with full blown horror, as the Welfare Bitch grabs his shoulder, trying (and succeeding) to get a look at the "baby".
CAPT (19): I let her see.
CAPT (20): Because the little freak wasn't moving, or breathing, or smelling, or freaking LIVING.
Panel 12 MEDIUM WIDE TWO SHOT. Adam, calm-faced, cradles the dead freak baby, holding it up to the repulsed Welfare Bitch.
CAPT (21): Inside my head, there were fireworks, suicide, guns, and cacophony. But my expression was a bland, vapid wall of I-told-you-so.
CAPT (22): She saw what it wasn't: a glass-eyed, latex-skinned dummy prop.
ADAM (23): Here's your baby. Satisfied?
Panel 13 ON ADAM -- MEDIUM SHOT. Looking down at the dead baby he cradles in his arms.
CAPT (24): I called a wrap.
CAPT (25): This was the end of my career.
PAGES THREE & FOUR:
(NOTE ON LAYOUT: PRIMARILY A MONTAGE PAGE. WE'LL KEEP THE DIMENSIONS AFFORDED BY THE TWO PAGE SPREADS. THE FIRST FOUR PANELS ARE EQUAL-SIZED RUNNING LEFT TO RIGHT AT THE TOP FROM PAGE THREE TO PAGE FOUR. THEN, ON THE NEXT TIER DOWN WE CAN GET LOOSE FOR THE REMAINEDER (2/3RDS) OF THE DOUBLE PAGE.)
(FIRST FOUR PANELS -- ONE CONSECUTIVE HORIZONTAL STRIP READING LEFT TO RIGHT)
Panel 1 int. winnebago. medium shot Adam inside propping up Asta's body on the table. (JUST SHOW HIS ARMS/HANDS PLACING THE RUBBERY DOLL-LIKE BODY ON THE COUNTER TOP.)
capt: I took the little body and retired to the winnebago. Cindy was waiting for me, but I threw her out.
capt: I locked the door and stared at it.
Panel 2 MEDIUM CLOSE ON -- Asta. Looking FAKE. Deflated, rubbery, totally lifeless with blank eyes.
Capt: The thing now looked ridiculously fake, its skin drying and looking like inner tube rubber.
Capt: The eyes were sightless, soulless, clear glass windows to a dark room.
Panel 3 REVERSE ANGLE. MEDIUM CLOSE ON ADAM. Frowning, his eyes behind his glasses as lifeless as Asta's. (THE BACKGROUND SHOULD BE OUT OF FOCUS -- THE OUTLINE OF A WINNEBAGO WINDOW WITH THIN CURTAINS DRAWN, THE MATERIAL ALLOWING SOME LIGHT IN SO ADAM'S HEAD/SHOULDERS ARE BACK- LIT -- INKS TO EMPHASIZE THE DEEP FROWN ON HIS FACE.)
Capt: Where did it all start? How did it all go wrong?
Capt: It started with..
Panel 4 Match dissolve to med close on Adam -- A B&W PHOTO (the photo frames him like the winnebago window) Identical position. Different expression -- smiling. A much younger Adam (make him look even younger -- like a precocious 13 yr old, not a shadow of a whisker in sight) wearing a UCLA sweatshirt.
Capt: ...film school.
Capt: I got a scholarship to UCLA.
(NOTE TO FLINT. NOW WE'RE ONTO THE MONTAGE SEQUENCE -- THIS FLOWS ACROSS THE REMAINDER OF THE TWO PAGES)
IMAGE #1: INT. MOVIE SET (DONT WORRY ABOUT BACKGROUND DETAIL) Adam wearing jacket, white shirt, tie, looking thru camera eyepiece.
Capt: It was GREAT! Imagine having all that equipment for nothing! Study work was shot on video, but the thesis was always shot on film, with sync sound, even optical titles.
IMAGE #2: MOVIE THEATER SCREEN: A Panavision wide frame showing the legend: WORDS WITHOUT VOICES. (and beneath that: AN ADAM GILLIS FILM)
Capt: I shot mine in 35mm 'scope and Dolby Surround.
Capt: One good thing about UCLA is the agent connection. Make a good film, write a good script, and every door in Century City suddenly opens up to you. It's like dogs smelling a bitch in heat.
CAPT #3: It took me a year and a half to finish my 24-minute epic, WORDS WITHOUT VOICES, but it was worth it.
IMAGE #4: AN AWARD OF SOME SORT (the golden film can?)
CAPT: I submitted it to film festivals around the world, and started collecting awards.
CAPT: I got calls from ICM, William Morris, CAA. But I learned quick that it's the agent, not the agency, that makes the difference.
IMAGE #5: ROSEN, THE AGENT (make him look like Harry Dean Stanton)
CAPT: I finally signed on with old Rosen at CAA.
CAPT: "We don't want development deals," he said, "we want to make MOVIES. No TV, no cable. Theatrical features only."
IMAGE #6: A CAMERA CLAPPER-BOARD.
CAPT: After months of B.S., @#$kissing, negotiations, and my price going through the stratosphere, Rosen finally landed me a gig.
CAPT: Written & Directed by ME.
CAPT: That was the easy part.
IMAGE #7: FRONT PAGE OF VARIETY (FLINT, JUST DRAW A PAIR OF HANDS HOLDING A COPY OF VARIETY. YOU DRAW THE "VARIETY" LOGO -- I'LL PROVIDE A COPY FOR YOUR REFERENCE.)
NOTE TO LETTERER: PLEASE INSERT THE FOLLOWING HEADLINE ONTO NEWSPAPER:
HEADLINE: TIM INC. A BUST! and -- SUBHEADING (smaller letters): CAA DROPS GILLIS
CAPT: Let's cut to the chase as the Studio Suits like to say.
CAPT: They murdered my movie.
CAPT: And I got a chainsaw right in the career.
IMAGE #8: REBECCA. MEDIUM SHOT. BACKGROUND: A HALLWAY. (CHARACTER REF: A JASMINE BLEETH TYPE OF CHICK -- SMILING, BIG BOOBS STRUGGLING AGAINST LOW-CUT BLOUSE.)
CAPT: I lost my beach condo, my Porsche.
CAPT: I couldn't even get a gig directing a $200,000 bimbos-in-peril flick for Corman.
CAPT: But I met Rebecca in a corridor at DEG. I think we were both planning on sleeping with the same producer.
PAGE FIVE
(OKAY FLINT, LET'S TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT HERE, HOPEFULLY TO SIMPLIFY
MATTERS. LET'S TREAT EACH PAGE AS SEPARATE BUT COMPLEMENTARY UNITS -- I.E.
LIKE REGULAR PAGES OF SIX PANELS EACH, BUT MATCHING FOR DESIGN PURPOSES.)
(THIS IS A SIX PANEL PAGE)
Panel 1 (THIS PANEL, AND ALL OTHERS ON THIS PAGE SHOULD BE SHAPED LIKE TV SCREENS SURROUNDED BY BLACK BORDERS. CAPTIONS WILL GO ON THE BORDERS/GUTTERS.)
TV SCREEN IMAGE -- SOMETHING LIKE A SHOT FROM "CHARLES IN CHARGE" OR SOME OTHER DUMB SIT-COM.
CAPT: Rebecca had a West Hollywood apartment and a car. Her dream was jumping from soaps to features.
CAPT: By then I was starting to think TV sitcom work wouldn't be so bad. The door had been slammed in my face so hard that Charles In Charge started to seem pretty Goddamn funny.
Panel 2 (ANOTHER TV SCREEN-SHAPED PANEL) EXT. DOWNTOWN LA. DAY. MEDIUM WIDE SHOT. A dishevelled Adam walking towards us. Tall, glossy, corporate buildings hem him in. A LATINO STREET VENDOR in the BG selling oranges from a cart.
CAPT: I had to get out. Had to get away from the TV.
CAPT: Downtown LA is much more like Mexico City than the center of an American metropolis. Almost 100% Latino, it's like a 360-degree Sensurround movie.
Panel 3 (SAME) EXT. STREET. MEDIUM CLOSE ON -- A magazine rack displaying Mexican comic books and Santo-style wrestling magazines. (NO NEED TO GET TOO DETAILED, FLINT.)
CAPT: I discovered weird Mexcian adult comics, bosomy romance pulps, and bloody wrestling magazines. They were worth every cent, even if they were in Spanish.
CAPT: But one day I found more than masked wrestlers in bondage...
Panel 4 (SAME) WIDER ON THE MAGAZINE RACK, REVEALING -- AN OLD MEXICAN CRONE wearing a shawl, a basket at her feet in the shade, rocking it with her foot.
CAPT: I saw something in the basket. Muchacho? I asked, because I had nothing else to say.
CAPT: Muchacha, she replied. Like it really mattered. A baby's a baby. And they all look like Alfred Hitchcock, anyway.
Panel 5 (SAME) ADAM'S POV ON THE BASKET, LOOKING DOWN. The Crone's hand is in frame, as if shielding the baby from Adam's voyeuristic gaze (or is it the other way around?)
CAPT: The kid started to cry, this weird, soft mewling sort of sound. Fascinated, I tried to see it, but the old crone stared at me in defiance.
CAPT: The kid's wailing grew louder, demanding food. The crone complied, and as she finished I caught my first glance of the kid.
Panel 6 (SAME) CLOSE-UP ON ASTA -- (FLINT -- THIS ISN'T THE ASTA WE SAW IN PAGE TWO, PANEL 13. IT'S A HEALTHY- LOOKING [if you can call Asta HEALTHY], breast-satiated, lactose-filled, charming(?) little sloe-eyed bundle of Mexican freak baby, with dropplets of tit juice around its lopsided, ready-to-suck lips.
CAPT: Kid? THIS was no child. But this freak baby was incredible.
CAPT: I knew immediately that I was back in business.
PAGE SIX:
(NOTE TO FLINT. ON THIS PAGE THE TV-SHAPED PANELS START TO GRADUALLY FLATTEN OUT INTO 35MM RECTANGULAR PANELS, MORPHING INTO FILM FRAMES, THE SOLID BLACK BORDERS SURROUNDING THE TV PANELS DISSOLVING AWAY TO REVEAL FILM BORDERS WITH SPROKET HOLES AS WE REACH THE PANELS FIVE & SIX.)
Panel 1 (SAME TV SHAPED PANEL) SEMI-WIDE, OVER THE CRONE'S SHOULDER AS -- We see Adam taking the blanket-wrapped thing in one hand while offering an envolope to the crone (background can be out of focus -- the colorist can make it work, just do simple line giudes: an outline of a car parked across the street against a concrete slab of a building?)
CAPT: I had Rebecca's rent money and gave it to the old woman. I'm not sure why. I guess I just had to HOLD IT.
CAPT: This THING would would make the most incredible story ever. had it all: HEART. STORY. CHARACTER. All that shit.
Panel 2 (SAME TV SHAPED PANEL -- BUT THE FIRST PART OF THE MORPH) CLOSE-UP (ASTA'S POV) ON ADAM. So we're looking up thru thing-baby's piss-holes-in-the snow eyes (maybe you can do something strange, make Adam look slightly distorted so there's no doubt we're seeing it from her/its POV.)
CAPT: Its eyes locked onto mine, and we were both transfixed.
CAPT: I touched it, and I could feel its heartbeat rippling through my hands as I stared into its cortex.
Panel 3 (MORPH SLOWLY, VERTICAL PANEL LINES CONTINUING TO FLATEN,) EXT. DOWNTOWN STREET. MEDIUM SHOT. Adam, back towards us, walks down the street cradling Asta (not seen) in his arms.
CAPT: By the time I looked up, Mamacita had vamoosed. But I had lucked out. This baby WAS my movie.
CAPT: Later I would realize that she got the better end of the deal.
Panel 4 (SAME AS THREE, LINES FLATTENING) INT. REBECCA'S APARTMENT. MEDIUM WIDE. DAY. Favoring Rebecca, shooting over Adam's shoulder. She's got hands on hips; pissy, semi-defiant. Pouty lips.
CAPT: "You always said you wanted a baby," I told her. She was NOT amused.
CAPT: But I knew how to handle her. And she didn't have a problem with the freak knowing she'd get a featured role in the movie.
Panel 5 (NOW MORPHED INTO FILM FRAMES WITH SPROCKET HOLES) INT. DAY. CLOSE-UP -- ASTA Wrapped in a Smurf blanket, sucking on a bottle of milk. (Flint: this would be one of those "lookit-the-cute-l'il-baby-feeding" snap shots were it not for the fact Asta looks SOO DISGUSTING...)
CAPT: Feeding was easy; it suckled on anything and everything that found its way into is disgusting lips.
CAPT: I named it ASTA.
Panel 6 (SAME AS FIVE -- FILM FRAME) INT. OFFICE. DAY. MEDIUM SHOT. ROSEN on the phone looking incredulous but not surprised.
CAPT: I set about rebuilding every bridge I burned. Bullied, badgered and blackmailed my way into meetings everywhere in town.
CAPT: Eventually, Rosen took my call. And set up a DEAL...
PAGES SEVEN & EIGHT:
(FLINT: EACH OF THESE TWO PAGES ARE COMPOSED OF SIX EQUAL SIZED PANELS. WE ARE
NOW IN FULL 35MM RECTANGULAR FRAMES BORDERED BY FILM STRIPS WITH SPROCKET
HOLES)
PAGE SEVEN:
Panel 1 MEDIUM CLOSE-UP -- INT. OFFICE. DAY. We see Adam's right hand holding a pen as he signs a contract. (NOTE TO COLORIST: Ink should be blood red; a Faustian deal...)
CAPT: I was a hyphenate: Writer-Producer-Director. No presentation credit, but did I cry?
CAPT: All I worried about was Asta. Would she grow out of her weirdness during the four months of preproduction?
Panel 2 (WE RETURN TO PRESENT -- A REPEAT OF PAGE THREE, PANEL 3, WHICH IS --) MEDIUM CLOSE ON ADAM. Frowning, his eyes behind his glasses as lifeless as Asta's. (THE BACKGROUND SHOULD BE OUT OF FOCUS -- THE OUTLINE OF A WINNEBAGO WINDOW WITH THIN CURTAINS DRAWN, THE MATERIAL ALLOWING SOME LIGHT IN SO ADAM'S HEAD/SHOULDERS ARE BACK- LIT -- INKS TO EMPHASIZE THE DEEP FROWN ON HIS FACE.)
CAPT: Everything went great. Until THAT day.
CAPT: Suicide was an alternative, but I'm too much a coward to pull the trigger.
Panel 3 (A REPEAT OF PAGE THREE, PANEL 2, WHICH IS --) MEDIUM CLOSE ON ASTA -- Looking FAKE. Deflated, rubbery, totally lifeless with blank eyes.
CAPT: But as I stared into its ugly rubber mug, a simpler choice came to mind. We had the most important shot in the can already.
Panel 4 CLOSER IN ON ASTA. Dead. Totally lifeless. Blank eyes pissholes in the snow.
CAPT: The establishing shot of the monster was there. Filmed properly, maybe one of those effects tyros could help me pull off the rest of the show...
CAPT: We shut down production for a week while we sent out emergency bids to Stan Winston and some non-union guys.
Panel 5 INT. ADAM'S NEW HOUSE. KITCHEN. NIGHT. MEDIUM SHOT: We see Adam closing the refrigerator door.
CAPT: I went home that night feeling almost relaxed.
CAPT: I placed Asta's body in the 'fridge, promising myself to give the thing a decent burial out back...but only if the latex replacement was perfect.
Panel 6 INT. ADAM'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. MEDIUM C/UP LOOKING DOWN ON -- a peacefully sleeping Adam. He's fallen asleep before turning out the bedside lamp.
CAPT: I dreamt strangely alluring dreams of motherhood, a child suckling at my chest.
CAPT: Something awoke me. Something terrible...
Panel 1 INT. ADAM'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. EXPRESSIONISTIC C/UP -- a HEALTHY, almost happy-looking Asta, her lips smeared with fresh blood.
CAPT: Good GOD! It was NO DREAM!
Panel 2 EXT. ADAM'S BACK YARD. NIGHT. EXPRESSIONISTIC MEDIUM SHOT -- Like a scene from Whale's FRANKENSTEIN, Adam, under very slight light of a quarter moon (with smeary traces of cloud drifting across it) shovels dirt. He's dressed in a sweat suit. A bloody bundle of bedsheet at his feet. (NOTE TO COLORIST: this panel should be quite dark. Think Carravaggio.)
CAPT: I beat it to a bloody pulp and buried it deep behind the barbecue pit.
CAPT: Then I showered and took a handful of tranquilizers, knocking myself into sweet oblivion...
Panel 3 INT. ADAM'S BEDROOM. NIGHT. MEDIUM C/U -- ADAM propped up in bed looking terrible, traces of dried blood on his chest.CAPT: I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised to awake the following night to find the THING back.
CAPT: The old Mexican woman knew I was her salvation the moment she saw me. I know that now.
Panel 4 SAME -- PULLING BACK TO REVEAL... SAME. Adam with blood-stained sheets, scabs and marks all over his chest.
CAPT: I must have destroyed the baby a dozen times by now, but it'll keep coming back. To feed.
CAPT: My lust to own it was the closest thing to love it ever felt, and now we're paired. Mated. For life.
Panel 5 SAME -- DIFFERENT (SIDE) ANGLE. A thin, emaciated Adam sitting on the edge of the dried blood-stained bed, hunched over, drinking deep from a bottle of bourbon. His chest and ribs are dotted with scabbing circular marks, like suckers have been attached to his body.
CAPT: It comes, each day after I kill it, to partake of my body's cast-offs -- my cells, my essence -- rejuvenated by my blood.
CAPT: In the week since we shot the birth scene, sleep has only been a distant dream. I pulled the phone out. I don't answer the door.
Panel 6 EXTREME C/UP -- ADAM Like the old style fade out, a receding circle in the center of a black screen, and in that fade-out circle Adam's face -- the face of an Auschwitz inmate...
CAPT: The thing will live as long as I do. Maybe longer.
CAPT: I know of one sure way to end the torment. Asta may be indestructible, but I am not. I have only one single regret.
CAPT: I know I'll never make another movie.
--FIN--
Copyright © 1997 Mick Garris and Flint Henry. Based on the story that originally appeared in the anthology Silver Scream.